My thoughts on the Phillies season.

The bats came out to support Vance Worley as the Phils beat up on the Mets, 10-3.

The Phils’ bats came out tonight in support of Vance Worley as they crushed the formerly red hot Mets, 10-3.

The Mets tried to get on the board in the first inning as, with one man out, Placido Polanco and Jimmy Rollins committed two straight errors, allowing both Daniel Murphy and David Wright to reach base before Vance Worley got Carlos Beltran to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, wiping out Wright at second base, to end the inning. The Phils took the lead in the fourth as, with one man on, and with nobody out, Ryan Howard hits a two-run home run, his fifth home run of the year, scoring Rollins, who had earlier singled, giving the Phils a 2-0 lead. The Phils then added to their lead in the fifth as, with the bases loaded, via singles by Shane Victorino and Polanco, with Victorino stopping at second base, and with Howard being hit by the pitch, moving up both runners, and with one man out, Ben Francisco hits a two-run single, knocking in both Victorino and Polanco, making it a 4-0 Phils’ lead, while sending Howard up to second base. The Mets tried to score again in the sixth as, with two men on, via a single by Wright, and a walk to Beltran, with Wright stopping at second base, and with no one out, before Worley got Jason Bay to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, wiping out Beltran at second base, while sending Wright on to third, and then ended the inning by getting Ian Davis to fly out to left. The Phils then busted the game wide open in their half of the sixth as, with the bases once again loaded, via a walk to Brian Schneider, Victorino being hit by a pitch, sending Schneider up to second base, a passed ball by Josh Thole, allowing Schneider to reach third base, and Victorino to stop at second base, then Polanco reaching first on a fielder’s choice, as Victorino is caught off second base on Polanco’s grounder as Schneider did not go home on contact, 4-unassisted, and a walk to Rollins, sending Polanco on to second base and with two men out, Howard hits a grand-slam home run, his sixth home run of the year, his second home run of the night, and his tenth career grand-slam home run, knocking in Schneider, Polanco and Rollins, giving the Phils an 8-0 lead. The Phils then made it a 10-0 lead in the seventh as, once again with the bases loaded, via a walk to Raul Ibanez, Pete Orr being hit by the pitch, sending Ibanez up to second base, with both runners moving up a base on a Ryota Igarashi wild pitch and a walk to Victorino, and with two men out, Polanco hits a two-run single, his 39th hit for the month of April, breaking the club record set by Chase Utley, knocking in both Ibanez and Ott, while sending Victorino on to second base. The Mets finally got on the board in the ninth as, with one man out, Davis hits a solo home run, his fifth home run of the season, making it a 10-1 Phils’ lead. Two batters later, with a runner on second, via a walk to Thole, and with him going to second base on defensive indifference, and with still one man out, Jason Pridie hits a two-run home run, scoring Thole before him, making it 10-3 Phils. That would be the final score as David Herndon would get the final two outs, striking out Chin-lung Hu swinging for the final out.

Vance Worley (1-0, 0.00) gets the win as he pitched six shut out innings, giving up two hits and four walks, while striking out five. He did rather well in his start for the injured Joe Blanton. Michael Stutes pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk, while striking out a batter. Danys Baez pitched a 1-2-3 inning. David Herndon pitched an inning, giving up two runs on two hits and a walk, while striking out a batter. Mike Pelfrey (1-3, 7.39) took the lost as he went four and one-third innings, giving up four runs on eight hits, a walk and a hit batter, striking out three. Dillon Gee pitched one and two-thirds innings, giving up four runs on a hit, two walks and a hit batter, while he struck out one. Rota Igarashi pitched two-third of an inning, giving up two runs on a hit, three walks and a wild pitch, while striking out one. Tim Byrdak pitched an inning and a third, giving up a walk, while striking out two. Stutes, after giving up a walk, settled down and got out the next three batters that he would face in the seventh inning.

The Phils had ten hits in the game, with Placido Polanco (Singles, 2 RBIs), Jimmy Rollins (Singles), Ryan Howard (Home Runs, 6 RBIs) and Ben Francisco (Singles, 2 RBIs), all leading the team with two hits each. Shane Victorino (Single) and Vance Worley (Single) had the other two Phils’ hits, with Worley having his first career hit. Ryan, with his six RBIs, would establish a new Phils’ record for the month of April with 27 RBIs, while Polanco, with his two hits, would establish a new Phils’ hits record for the month with 39 hits, breaking Chase Utley’s record of 38 hits. The Phils, in their last three games, had been hitting and scoring runs again. I just hope it’ll last for a while.

The Phils (17-8, 1st) will continue their weekend series with the Mets (11-15, 5th), with an afternoon game that will be televised on Fox. The game will be played at Citizens Bank Park and will start at 1:10 pm. The Phils will send to the mound their ace, Roy Halladay (3-1, 2.41), who is coming off a win against the Padres on April 24, as he pitched eight and two-thirds innings, giving up a run on five hits and a walk, while striking out fourteen, in the Phils’ 3-1 win. Roy will be going for his second win against the Mets and his fourth for the year. The Mets will try to counter with Joe Niese (1-3, 5.10), who is coming off a win against the D-backs on April 24, as he went seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks, while he struck out three, in the Mets’ 8-4 win. He will be trying to even up the series for the Mets. The Phils will be trying for a three games winning streak later today.

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